Taking a look at the Church at Ephesus

Understanding Ephesians.

Vs.1
Paul explains that His apostleship is:
a. By the will of God
He goes on to say that this letter is to the saints which are at Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus.
When I take a look at this in its immediate context I realize that Paul is writing to the Church (universal) and Local (Ephesus). Now we can assume that this letter may have gone to a specific church at Ephesus, a house church, but it very well could have gone to a group of churches(houses). It would infer that it would go to other believers as well because of the "faithful in Christ Jesus".

Vs.2
Paul gives his usually greeting "grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ." When you read in context every word is very important to understand who this letter is addressed too. We address God's as Father, because of our relationship that we have with Him.

Vs.3
1. Praise is given to God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ... We give praise to where it rightfully belongs. We also recognize with reverence God as God, in His might, Holiness, Righteousness, Justice, and other attributes given to Him, yet we recognize Him as the abba Father figure (Rom.8:15) that reflects His love, patience, mercy, and kindness.
2. "who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. This is where some separation of thought comes into play. We understand that all the blessings that we have can be traced to Christ and His work on the cross. When we were given the adoption of sons we were placed into the family of God. Now once again understanding the separations that the Church has with Israel, this relationship is one of future reigning with Christ unlike that of ruled over by Christ in the future, literal, millennial kingdom. We also must recognize that these blessings are not of this earth, they are spiritual blessings. Where Israel's promised blessings by God, to be avenged of it's enemies and given a promised land. The Churches blessings in Christ are those of reigning, being married to Christ, our conforming to His image.

Vs.4
Here is a portion of scripture that always makes some uneasy. I believe it is of the utmost importance to understand who the addressees are and the context in this particular case, we also must understand the pronouns in light of that context. "according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundations of the world...". Some look at this portion of scripture and see only the "chosen", which is an important aspect, but not to the neglecting of "us". Who is the us?
a. some would say that the "us" is all of the saints of all times. They would hold to a soteriological or salvation context of this passage.
b. I personally would say, in light of the context, that the "us" would refer to the Church. The context of Paul's writings were to the Church, as the Body of Christ, the Bride of Christ, in its entirety. He was writing to the local church at Ephesus, immediately, but was talking to the universal church in relation to the dispensation that he lived in Eph. 3:2-5.
We see that we are chosen "in him before the foundations of the world. This relationship is unique among the dispensations of God being the bride to Christ, instead of the people of God. Throughout several of the other dispensations previous to the age of the Church, the people that God deals with is the nation of Israel.
We are exhorted to be "holy and without blame before him in love:" Holy and without blame speak of purity. When you think of a bride, adorn for her bridegroom, you have a picture of her purity in the white dress that she wears. She has kept herself pure from a promiscuous life to be presented to her groom as blameless. Every saint must keep this in mind, continuously. We are to abstain from the filthy things of this world, fornication, lies, etc. A sinful lifestyle does not fit the life of a pure bride.

Vs.5
"having predestined us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,"
Predestined us(Church) unto the adoption of children. These terms also get swept under the Reformed theology rug. We know that we are brought into the family of God through adoption. We are not like the nation Israel, Children of God, but we are adopted into this family. Remember that Context tells us that we are talking about the Church here, not all saints of all dispensations.